ZURICH: Top seed and world number one Jelena Jankovic faces a tough draw at the 600,000-dollar Zurich Open, in a week when several players will be hoping to solidify their challenge for a place in the eight-field Sony Ericsson Championships that takes place in Doha next month.

The Serb’s first opponent, after a first round bye, could be a resurgent Nadia Petrova, who began the year by losing in the first round in six of her first seven tournaments. But since June the Russian has won Cincinnati, reached finals in Eastbourne and Stuttgart, and climbed back to 14 in the world rankings.

If a weary Jankovic, who has won titles in Beijing, Stuttgart and Moscow in the past three weeks, gets past that hurdle, she could face Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, who is strongly motivated by the knowledge that if she does well in the final weeks of the season she could also earn a place in Doha.

Another Serb, Ana Ivanovic, is seeded two, and she will be seeking some confidence-boosting victories to reverse her poor form since her victory at Roland Garros in June.

Since then she has played just 10 matches, losing five. She opens against either Marion Bartoli of France or Hungary’s Agnes Szavay and then could play either of two left-handers, Patty Schnyder of Switzerland or Austrian Sybille Bammer.

Venus Williams is seeded three and the American needs every point she can get as she also bids for one of the remaining places in Doha.

She has a fairly comfortable draw, facing either Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko or Alize Cornet of France in the second round, and a possible quarter-final against fragile Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.

Russian Vera Zvonareva is another player chasing points for Doha, and the number four seed confirmed she is also in form by reaching Sunday’s Moscow final, going down to Jankovic.

Zvonareva will face the potentially dangerous Na Li of China in round two, or Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues, with seventh seed and fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze a likely quarter-final opponent.

The top four seeds have first round byes. Fifth-seeded Radwanska, sixth-seeded Schnyder and seventh-seeded Chakvetadze all begin against qualifiers, while eighth seed Hantuchova plays Russia’s Maria Kirilenko.

Seeds:

1. Jelena Jankovic (SRB), 2. Ana Ivanovic (SRB), 3. Venus Williams (USA), 4. Vera Zvonareva (RUS), 5. Agniezska Radwanska (POL), 6. Patty Schnyder (SUI), 7. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS), 8. Daniela Hantuchova (SVK).